April 26, 2012

Peanut Butter and Jelly Streusel Muffins

I’ve been making an effort to eat breakfast every morning. This is pretty difficult for several reasons: I’m not a morning person and even pouring a bowl of cereal can be too much to handle some days. Also, I’m just not very hungry in the mornings. A cup of coffee is more than enough to fill me up. For these reasons I have to cheat by making myself a “dessert” in the mornings. Basically, something that’s so good, I can’t pass it up. Since they can be made ahead of time, muffins are usually my go-to treat. I’ve made a lot of muffins in my time and they usually fall under delicious but unhealthy or healthy but dry and/or boring. With these peanut butter muffins I feel like I finally found the perfect compromise of healthy but still delicious.

These muffins are packed to gills with nutritious ingredients. They’re made with whole wheat flour and oats and they don’t have any processed sugar (though if you don’t have maple sugar you can use white sugar instead). The recipe doesn’t contain eggs, so the muffins can be made dairy-free with soy milk. In addition to the peanut butter, these muffins also have mashed bananas to make them extra moist. I left them out, but if you wanted to get really crazy you can even add peanuts and raisins! Once the batter is divided up, each muffin is topped with a dollop of fruit preserves. And since I love a good streusel muffin, I added an oat streusel to top everything off.

Despite all the healthy ingredients, the peanut butter shines through and makes these muffins taste a lot more sinful than they are. And with all the fiber and protein they’re very filling so you won’t be tempted to eat too many. I know I’ve made something good when I actually wake up craving one of these for breakfast. You really can’t go wrong starting your day off with one of these peanut butter muffins!

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Stir in the oats.

In a medium bowl stir together milk, oil, maple syrup, vanilla, peanut butter and vinegar. Add in the bananas and mash until well blended.

In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the streusel: oats, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add in the small pieces of butter and rub the ingredients between your fingers until crumbly. Set aside.

Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the peanut butter mixture. Stir just until combined.

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full. Add a dollop (about a teaspoon) of fruit preserves on top and then sprinkle with streusel topping.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Store in the freezer for up to two weeks.

Recipe Notes

You can make these muffins extra crunchy by adding 2 tablespoons of peanuts along with the oats in the flour mixture. Feel free to add a few tablespoons of chopped peanuts to the streusel topping, too.

If you like raisins, add 3 tablespoons along with the oats in the flour mixture.

I love the combination of peanut butter and banana, especially in baked goods! These muffins sound so good, especially with the addition of the fruit preserves and the streusel topping. I also like that they’re still pretty healthy so I could eat them for breakfast. Thanks for the recipe!